>> hello and well come. i'm phil tore eses and we are here to talk about technology. let's check out our team of hard-core nerds. maria is a biologist specializing in ecoo ecology and evolution. scientists hunt down a bacterial killer. bionic eye. tonight we visit a young scientist who xreeate cree why c

eye. tonight i face the ultimate test. guess what's for dinner. how would you like some crispy crickets. that is our team. now let's do some science. ♪ ♪ >> hey guys welcome to "techno" where we bring you interesting innovations in the field of science. i'm fill phil tore s.ez. >> i understand you went to florida and they are having

problems with the citrus trees of it's a bacteria that is causing the fruit not to ripen ploplploply andproperly and wilt on the citrus industry worldwide. let's take a look at it. ♪ orange juice, we americans love it. in fact we drink more per capita than anywhere else there is a deadly disease that is ravaging the citrus trees here in florida. if its iss it isn't dealt with n orange juice from america may become a thing of the past. of ♪

growers culled the disease citrus greening. it leaves the fruit half green and misshape enanen and sour. it was first detected in 2005 and it's been plaguing citrus growers ever ever since. a tiny insect feeds on the leaves. it was not until 1971 that researchers confirmed that it was a bacteria that thrives in the gut of the bug that causes the disease. when he feeds on the tissue or the growth he transmitt transmie bacteria from there. it's trouble. travis murphy is it the president of river country citrus. >> we have already picked these trees once look at the fruit

left you can see a lot of wasted energy because these fruits won't make it to the market. travis told me that 100% of his groves are now infectedde infec. is this something that worries you daily? >> daily and at night. there is probably a spot in my bed where it's worn pret tidt d of. >> so far there is no cure calvin arnold heads up a team raising tracing to find one befs too late. >> a grower told me today you have to give me more tools in my tool box. >> in the follo tool box they he strategies from for treatment to

already diseased freeze. a plant pathologist is looking to erad canadia eradicate the da from the tries. it could be five years. >> juan has been working on a treatment called they ar thermal therapy. they crank up the heat for three to seven days. >> this is three months after the heat treatment and yo auld u seyou -- all you see is the healthy plants. >> they are essentially cured from the disease. cured in a controlled situation. >> juan and his team have a field solution. >> whawhat is this? techbilityo acheecachieve. we can increase the temperature

inside up to 100. >> how effective is this treatment? we know after the treatment the bacteria significancel signific. >> the results are good enough that some growers are fashion beiningtheir own tent. his colleague entomologist wayne hunter is tackling it from the other side. >> colonellcurrently they spray insoackeinsettedinsecticides. and normally you would release a bug that would hunt the problem. hunter has a sleus tha solutions designed to stop some of the functions. >> we apply the rna to the tree and the insect feeds on the tree

and it takes it into it's body. and then they think it's an intruder and it ends up killing iitself. >> a small amount of liquid. >> okay. and that then we are going to threatethen put our tree. and we'll add our insects to this lyl little try and a cage d we cap this and a nice little cage. and we can leul actually look at mortality. they are really small. >> they are very small. >> you can see some on the leaves if you look carefully. the body sticks up whe they are feeding. >> there is one moving down the leaf. >> we see the first mortality in day three. you have about 80% mortality by day favour eight. five or eight. and at the end wield have oach %

mortality. >> can you eat it? >> you can break it down with the acids in your stomach. >> he hopes his research will lead to a commercial available spray. even if it's good the path to regulatory approval is murky. >> this technology is so new we don't have regula regulatory oun how it has to be screened. >> in the meantime citrus growers like traf ise travis mus taking it one day at a time. it's juicy. not only does it taste good, it's good for you. i just hope and i can't envision

florida without oranges. we have got to find a solution. and we will. >> it really looks like the citrus tre industry is in troube not just in florida but around the world. >> it's afoackettin affects" a n california and china. and there is no cure yet and no one knows how to get a grasp on it at all. what if these technique don't work is there any other approach they can take. they're approaching it in a medium and longterm strategy. the rna and that is a medium terrorism strategy. therthere is another longterm strategy with the transgenic approach. they are using genes from

spinach and putting them florida the citrus treats and the gene produces a protein that inhibits the bacteria. >> a genetically modified organism. a transgenic gene from one organism. >> that is really interesting. >> coming up next we'l we'll beg down to neens new orleans and we going to be eating something with six legs we want to hear what you think of these storie. follow us on twittered an twittd aljazeera.com. tonight, >> there's probably about a hundred people living in the extreme tiny houses... >> is going small part of a big movement? odd

♪ >> hey guys welcome back to "techno" i want to show you guys something. >> when you see this, you see crickets do you see food? i do. i went down to new orleans and i got to do a story about how eating insects will save the world in a lot of ways zbl.ts let's go check it out. ♪ >> there is no place like down south louisiana for a great time. and even greater food. and little did i know that my first trip to the mardis gras capital of the world would have me eating way more than the a ap

poor boy. here we cook bugs and serve them to our guests. we tell our guests if you have a little spoon fulful of them like this and toss them back. >> i have to try this. >> have some crispy cajun crickets. >> you heard that right. eating a variety of bugs with an entomonfaphagy. >> is insect eating. we have six spreads and salsa and hopping herb dip. how many bugs are you feeding people a week. we will use about 10,000 insects a week. >> just as insects can come in a

virus fee otea ofvariety of for. you can eat them as a main dish or you can eet eat the larva ora or adult. we are going to friday some dragonflies. 2 billion people are already eating insects as part of their regular diet in asia, south america and after carolina. carolina. and -- africa. what is the boast thin best thit eating insects. you have got a lot of abun danieabundantelements that our n use. bugs are so rich the united

nations have released a call for more insect farming worldwide. >> a lot of entomologists are studying why eating bugs are so good. and how to introduce it to the main stream society. though believthey believe bugs y critic it icrickets are the fut. >> you can take ten pounds of grain and feed a cow and you get one pound. and you take the same amount for crickets and you get eight or nine pounds. with the global population growing the demand for meat products is expected to double. you try to over come eating a cricket or grasshopper.

something you have been trained since birth to get this grasshopper out of th out of myf it's going to be like sushi and a new culinary experience and the as moackets o aspect of flys in the hands of the choafs. che. he buys his crickets from a cricket farm. we are one of the few countries that really don't eat insects. if it caught on on the human side it would grow significantly fast. >> what and i listening to here? >> they are rubbing their wings together. the big misconception is that it comes from their legs but it doesn't, it comes from their wings this is a room full of crickets ready to mate. >> absolutely out of 1 18 build,

this one houses the breeders. we have a faster psych ol'. cycle. we can grow a cricket out in five and a half weeks and by the time it hatches from an egg we have a fue full grown cricket. >> they produce 5 million crickets a week. humans like critic it is at five weeks when the wings are not formed yet. when you see crickets you don't think food. 100 grams of crickets have 13 grams of protein and 100-calories. some people do actually eat the insects that you raise here. >> sure we handle them a little different and we put them in a fresh clean cricket box and we put them in the freezer so they are flash frozen. once they are fras flash frozene send them off to the kitchen to be prepared. they smell like a very nutty and

very gamey. >> that smells really good. >> he hopes to make the culinary world take a big flts wit noticn innovative projects on the way. >> this is what we are looking for when we move to the flower. the next secret is griedgeddingg thousands of them into cricket flour. here we have semi fine grade. you can see some of the legs and if you look closely you will see the head or two. >> it removes the whole idea of the visual and psychological. you can blend it into bread or brownies and cook sees. cookies zbl>>tsd ancook.and it provides all of te health benefits bou without triggering am i eating a bug right now ?r.t.

>> no you are eating a brownie. i told you i would be experiencing the cull nai culinn dpers. >> the moment -- wo wonders. the moment of truth. lfortall right guys i hope i hae convinced you. >> all right crystal what do you think. >> i think it looks like it used to be alive but it's in chocolate so i'm going for it. a little chocolate and a little krisecrispy. i have eet eetd eaten bugs befo.

and it's no issue for me. what do you think it's going to take. >> it's going to take hitting younger generations. everyone i meet say when they feed it to kids they love it. and when they grow up they get grossed out on it. >> do you think you need to hit harder on the nutritional aspect. >> and just getting over it. there is no greenhouse gases and it's incredibly healthy. >> as an end moll gift you are not conflicted by this. >> insects are so diversion you can eat them in a diverse amount of ways. including eating them. all right after the break what you are going to be showing us. a 18-year-old genius who has created a 3 guy mentional bionic arm.

>> evey weeknight on al jazeera america

change the way you look at news

hey guys welcome back to "techno" i'm phil torres. now you had a chance to hangout with a very bright 18-year-old. tell me about this. >> in his bedroom has created a three d printed boy yopi bionic. >> he is so young and has a bright future. let's check it out. where do you use your mountain bike? >> all over where i live in the mountains. >> the beautiful mountains of colorado. the place where this extraordinary teenager finds his

inspiration. >> what would be your dream? to have your own laboratory. >> i like to make things. i go from the prototype to the final pro ducketd. dujtd. product. inspiration that has taken him all the way to the white house. >> he is gaining attention armed the world for the creation of a low cost prosthetic arm that inter faces with the human brain. he is completely self taught he designed his arm in his bode room here. i'm hoping to give someone a prosthetic arm for less than a thousand dollars. it's more of a proof of concept. i want more of a human shape. it has to be appealing to the users and others. i started to use 3-d modeling

software cad and i 3-2k-6789 printed the first hand. one thing i had to do is toss a ball. 3-d printing is an an amazing nothing. technology you printed all of these in your room. >> yes this is my primary printer and i do extremely large parts with detail. >> i think a lot more people have taken notice of what he can do with a 3-d printer and realizing his vision of making a prosthetic arm at low cost. >> he is a self starter and he figured it out himself. apparently his room has become where creativity just took off. it was happening right under our knows. >> it di detects ten different channels of your brain. i combine all three of those to get a really cool accurate

result. >> what do you have to think n now. [laughter]. >> chris who is one of your big mementors in this. >> mary at the hachble hand cli. she helped me realize where i needed to pass and the functionality. >> all of us of course, right away, really took to such a young kid who is a pretty cool kid who is also into what we do. yeah, i can definitely show you mechanically what the limits are. i learned from anatomy and i learned from a lot of drawings. that is when i came to you. i was trying to find out the human limentsd an limits and bod i want to hopefully surpass hue plan strength. >> this is an inner passion about this tiblg project.

particular project. you should spend time in the clinic and so you can see patients needing help. >> half of the information i know about pros the they had prd never have mad found it on-line. >> if he makes a prosthetic arm for under a thousand dollars. the most interesting thing he taught me is how a person can go so far with an idea and have that idea help new ma humanitit. >> i'm in heust houston texas am working on a robo project and it's a telerobottic astro new a. i'm about to make the next generation of the arm that could evolve in to who nois noises wh.

who knows what. >> if i can go through life and doing what i'm doing now that would be my dream and if i can help people along the way that would be an extra bit. >> wow! seeing people like that what have i done in my life. i can't believe he has done that iin his bedroom. >> he is up to his third ghen raition ogeneration ofthe of the arm. he d decided not to go to colle. >> he is going to keep building. >> he is how old. >> he is turning 1 thi this yea. >> i hope you end joyed that ene cricket we will all go out in the field and we'll see you next week on "techno".

check check check >> hello welcome to al jazeera america, i'm jonathan betz live in new york. >> u.s. defend the iran nuclear agreement. president obama tries to calm israel after their prime minister calls a mistake. polls close in honduras - right now a tight race with no winner. >> afghan president refuses to give his okay to the elders agreement to keep american sold yours through. and